ANIMAL FARM

BY GEORGE ORWELL

Historical context
Animal Farm is an allegory of totalitarian regimes, and it is a book about a revolution that goes wrong (based on Russian Revolution of 1917 and Stalins use of power). In George Orwell own words: "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism... Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole.
Online: Internet. Available at <httphttp://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/animalfarm/fullsumm.html> Accessed on 12/02/2005.

A bit of History
Based on Karl Marx, Russian workers decided to rebel against the capitalists and aristocrats who controlled most of the countrys wealth.

Poor workers wanted to establish the communism, in which property would be a common good.

In 1917, Lenin, a member of the Communist Party took the power in Russia. After Lenins death in 1924, Stalin and Trotsky fought for the control of the Soviet Union. Staling banish Trotsky and consolidated his power through brutality.
Source: Online: Internet. Available at <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/context.html> Accessed on 12/02/2005.

Orwell intentions:

"Nothing has contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of

Socialism as the belief that Russia is a Socialist country and that every act of
its rulers must be excused, if not imitated. And so for the past ten years I have been convinced that the destruction of the socialist myth was essential if we wanted a revival of the socialist movement.

Original text: Online: Internet. Available at http://www.turnerlearning.com/tntlearning/animalfarm/afhistory.html Accessed on 12/02/2005.

A brief Timeline
1848 - Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto is completed. The pamphlet became the defining document of a revolutionary new idea: the political and social system called

communism.

1904 - Russo-Japanese War begins. A conflict over competing territorial interest in the Far East, Russia loses badly, duplicating their poor performance in the Crimean War of 1853-1856. Russia's economy is crippled by the expensive war effort, and many citizens are driven deeper in poverty.

1914 Tensions between the expanding and increasingly wealthy nations of Europe exploded in World War I. Russia joined the battle on the side of the British, French, and Italians; they fought the united Germans and Austrians.

1917 The October Revolution. Bolshevik troops, at the command of Vladimir Lenin advance on the Provisional Government headquarters at the Winter Palace. Bloodlessly, the soviets take the power, and this day marks the start of the communist era. 1918 Civil war begins in Russia and World Word I ends. 1921 Lenin announces the New Economic Policy. 1922 USSR is established. It is a federation of Russian states united under the communist system. 1924 Lenin dies. In the struggle for power, Joseph Stalin deceives Leon Trotsky, and assumes full command of the USSR. He immediately begins the process of isolating Trotsky within the party. 1930 Adolph Hitler rises in Germany. 1939 World War II in Europe begins. 1945 World War II in Europe ends. 1953 Stalin dies.

Lenin (Koogan-Houaiss encyclopedia, 2004) e Stalin (Koogan-Houaiss encyclopedia, 2004

Adaptation from:Online: Internet. Available at: <http://www.turnerlearning.com/tntlearning/animalfarm/aftimeline.html> Accessed on 12/02/2005.

George Orwell

About himself as a writer...

from a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books. Orwell, George. Why I write(1947)

In: FRANK, Joseph. Modern Essays in English. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1966. p318-325.

According to George Orwell there were four great motives for writing... 1. Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on growups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc. 2. Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. 3. Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity. 4. Political purpose. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples idea of the kind of society that should strive after. (... ) no book is genuinely free from political bias
Orwell, George. Why I write(1947)

In: FRANK, Joseph. Modern Essays in English. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1966. p318-325.

About their book...

(...) of late years I have tried to write less picturesquely and more exactly. In any case I find that by the time you have perfected any style of writing you have always outgrown it. Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole. Orwell, George. Why I write (1947) In: FRANK, Joseph. Modern Essays in English. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1966. p318-325.

KUBAL (1972) compares Orwell to Dedalus at chapter 4 of James Joyces A portrait of the artist as a young man when the protagonist decides to give up priesthood and embraces the life of art. Why is Orwell like Dedalus Kubal says that a modern artist as Dedalus seeks a form to give shape to his experience, to free him from old, invalid forms and to allow him to act... so, as Dedalus, Orwell had this experience: alienated from family, class, religion, and homeland he too sought a form which would satisfy him both as a man and an artist.
KUBAL, David L. Outside the whale: George Orwells Art and Politics. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1972. (introduction, page xiii).

http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/portrait_cover_2.jpg

Biographical data
1903 George Orwell is born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25th, in Motihari, India. Mr. Blair is a prosperous civil servant of the British Empire in India, depending on the Empire for their livelihood.

studyabroad.arizona.edu/ SASE/images/India-Sar...

1904 Ida Blair (Erics mother) moves back to England with Eric and his older sister Marjorie to be bring up in more Christian context. During his childhood he already writes...
1917 Eric Blair is admitted to Eton College, but does not continue studying after Eton. 1921 Blair leaves Eton College 1922 Blair returns to India and takes part in the Indian Imperial Police In Burma. At his job, Blair has contact with the poor and oppressed people and feels like the hand of the oppressor.

1927 unhappy Blair leaves the police and returns to England. He lives in the East End district of London, where he finds people like those he has met in India as a policeman. From 1922 to 1927 writes the essays Shooting an Elephant (1950), and A Hanging (1931).

1928 - Blair goes to Paris to become a writer, but he needs to deny his will and works as dishwater. 1929 He comes back to England, living as a tramp for awhile. After it, he becomes a teacher at a private school. He starts writing again.

1933 Down and Out in Paris and London (a novel), his first book is published under the pseudonym George Orwell. He is still a teacher, opens a bookshop and continues writing

http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/libs/hay/collections/orwell/down2.jpg

1934 Burmese Days, a fiction, is published.

1935 A Clergymans Daughter 1936 Keep the Aspidria Flying 1936 Orwell marries Eillen Maud O Shaughnessy on June 9th.
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/users/ vfolkenflik/VRF%20Sources/Orwell% 20Eileen%20Maud% 20O'Shaughnessy.jpg

1936 The road to Wigan Pier (dealing with poverty conditions) 1936 (December) He decides to enlist in the Socialist Military Party in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War. He is fighting for socialism in Spain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_Spain

1937 - The Road to Wigan Pier 1938 Orwell returns to England because of a wound in the neck during the war. 1938 Homage to Catalonia (his experiences in Spain)

http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/libs/hay/collections/orwell/homage2.jpg

1939 - Coming Up for Air 1941 Orwell works for the BBC as a broadcaster for India and he is already ill (tuberculosis). 1944 He and his wife dopts a child, Richard.

www.k-1.com/.../about/ pictures.html?expand=22 1945 Orwell resigns his job for BBC and works Animal Farm.

1945 His wife, Eileen, dies during an operation.

1945 Animal Farm is published and Orwell becomes famous.

http://www.todayinliterature.com/assets/illustrations/o/george-orwell-animal-farm

194 - He decides to move to the island of Jura (coast of Scotland) and is very sick

news.bbc.co.uk/media/ images/41009000/jpg/_410...

1949 Orwell writes 1984 and marries Sonia Bromwell.

1949 He comes back to England.

1950 on January 21st, he dies from tuberculosis.

REFERENCES

http://sfbook.com/pics/bcl_orwell_1984.jpg

FINNELL, Summer. George Orwell. Online. Internet: Available at <http://www.gradesaver.com>. Accessed on 11/27/2005. JOHNSON, Richard A. George Orwell (1903-1950).Online. Internet: Available at <http://www.levity.com>. Accessed on 11/28/2005.

The definition of this work considering the literary periods

Animal Farm is a satirical novel written during World War II and published in 1945 (according with data from the site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm). Its considered for many critics as a Modernist work, but we think that actually it has more Postmodernist characteristics than Modernist ones. In fact, we have the tendency of consider Modernist many works that show us contrasting ideas (categories) as a binary view of the world. On the other hand, we have the tendency of think that when these binary categories are dissolved it constitute Postmodernist works. However, we need to have clear in our minds that both Modernist and Postmodernist periods have similarities and they are extremely complicated to be analysed and splited in two different periods because they are marked by a tenuous changing that is in progress in the way of concept things in the world. It means, we can say that dont exist a rupture between these periods but just a gradual changing of perspectives.

The Modernist period is characterized by the use of the rationalism, the logical means as a way to know and to control an objective world in which coexits a sense of individualism and unified identity. The Postmodernist, in its turn, works with the problematization of these old conceptions and at the same time the term Postmodernist is a problem itself. According to Richard Kostelanetz (in: McHALE, Brian. From Modernist to Postmodernist Fiction: Change of Dominant. Postmodernist Fiction. London: Routledge, 1987. p.3) the term Postmodernist is something with relation to something else because its built in a way that show us a kind of duplicity. Considering the thoughts of Brian McHale the term Modernist pertain to the present and the term Postmodernist pertain to the future. However, the term Postmodernist is used with the same function of the term Modernist but as a kind of intensifier of it. It tries to mean the values in progress because in reality it doesnt exist (is impossible to show and to give meaning to the future). Brian McHale says that what is considered as Postmodernist is the productiveness that can be identified by some characteristics like: new insights, new or richer connections, coherence of a different degree or kind, more discourse (in the form of follow-up research), new interpretations, criticisms, refinements of the construct itself, counter-proposals, refutations and polemic themes

Considering those characteristics of the Postmodernist we can say that Animal Farm has most of them and it can be considered as a Postmodernist work especially because it shows a kind of rupture between an old concept (utopia) and a new one and Orwell passed to criticize the old one. In other words, it can be explained by the fact that

Orwell criticize the past having the experience of the present and trying to predict the
future. According to Einar Borresen: The concept (of Postmodernity our explanation) is also inextricably linked to actual political attempts at creating a new society based on equality and shared ownership. Today this communist dream is, like other collective political ideologies, seen as fallacious. In Animal Farm Orwell describes so well how human greed all too soon turns the collective Utopia into a dystopia, a society of terror with brainwashing and oppression. (in: Utopia or Feasting during a Plague from the site : http://www.localmotives.com/2003/english/utopia.html)

In this way, we can classify Animal Farm as a Postmodernist work because it shows a

changing in the perspectives and a new way of think. So, George Orwell can be also
seen as a Postmodernist thinker because according to George Englebretsen:

Postmodern thinkers claim to have broken the fetters of logic (inter alia) that have characterized the modern notion of rational discourse. The result, it is claimed, is a new freedom of communication. Rationally, in the sense of allegiance to universal logical constraints, is no longer the only, or even major, "communicative virtue." Social, psychological, political, historical considerations must all take precedence over logic. Judging the rational success of a piece of discourse (or "text") is now a matter to be dealt with by social scientists and literary critics rather than by logicians (the ones in whom moderns and premoderns had invested the task of defining rationality). Freed from the confines of logic, discourse can now become open, honest, sincere, politically sensitive,

historically conditioned. (in: Postmodernism and New Age Unreason from the site:
http://www.theabsolute.net/minefield/essays.html)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
BORRESEN, Einar. Utopia or Feasting during http://www.localmotives.com/2003/english/utopia.html a Plague.

ENGLEBRETSEN, George. Postmodernism and http://www.theabsolute.net/minefield/essays.html

New Age Unreason.

McHALE, Brian. From Modernist to Postmodernist Fiction: Change of Dominant. Postmodernist Fiction. London: Routledge, 1987. 3-11p. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm

ALLEGORY
1) Allegory is a figurative representation which carries non literal meaning. It can be expressed both by language and other kinds of art (painting, sculpture, etc). A fable or a parable is an allegory with one definite meaning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory

2) A story, a play, a picture, etc. in which each character or event is a symbol representing an idea or a quality, such as truth, evil, death, etc.
Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English

3)

ALLEGORY IN ANIMAL FARM

Animal Farm is called a satirical novel, fable or allegory which was witten during the World War II and criticizes totalitarian regimes, more specifically, Comunist totalitarism refering to the Russian Revolution (1917).

home.neo.rr.com/.../ beasthead.gif

4) THEMES # The corruption of the socialist ideals in the Soviet Union # The societal tendency toward class stratification # The danger of a naive working class # The abuse of language as an instrumental to the abuse of power
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/facts.html

5) CHARACTERS There is no central character in animal farm in a sense that all of them are important for what they mean, the historical figure they represent.
http://www.exclaim.ca/images/animal_farm.jpg

6) THE PIGS # Napoleon # Snowball # Squealer # Minimus # Old Major 7) THE HUMANS # Mr. Jones # Mr. Frederick # Mr. Pilkington # Mr. Whymper 8) THE OTHER ANIMALS # Boxer # Clover # Mollie # Benjamin # Moses # Muriel # Jesse and Bluebell # The Hens

http://www.exclaim.ca/images/animal_farm.jpg

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9)

ANALYSIS OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERS

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10) NAPOLEON # dictator Joseph Stalin # reference to political tyrants # opportunist # post-rebellion leader # power through fear # power corrupts #Napoleon Bonaparte = Anti-Christ

www.haderslev-katedralskole.dk/ kf/napoleon.gif

11) SNOWBALL
# Leon Trotsky # intellectual # loyal, brilliant, idealistic # Animalism worldwide # moral flaws

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/19991001/tv01.jpg

12) BOXER
# hard-working cart-horse (as well as Clover) # dedicated, loyal working classes # proletariat # low intelligence # exploited by the pigs # pitiful death # Boxer Rebellion in China

http://www.toonhound.com/afarm1.jpg

13) SQUEALER
# to squeal = to make a long high sound; to speak in a very high voice , specially when you are excited or nervous. # to squeal = to betray (www.sparknotes.com) # persuasive speaker, manipulator # propaganda machine of a totaliatrian government (www.gradesaver.com) # power through language # Pravda Russian newspaper # Goebbels minister of propaganda in Germany # loyality to his leader

http://alt.tnt.tv/movies/tntoriginals/animalfarm/bts/image/pop_squealer_img.jpg

14) OLD MAJOR

# Marx the Communist Revolution and Lenin russian revolutionary leader # the ideal of the revolution # honest proposals # successful revolt # death distant ideals

http://www.suite101.com/files/articles/26000%5C26605/OldMajor.jpg

15) OTHER SYMBOLS Farm buildings Kremlin (In the early days of the USSR there were sightseeing tours through the Kremlin. Later it became the residence of Stalin) Windmill the Russian Industry, that has been built by the working-class. Fredericks Hitler (arrangement and secret deals) Foxwood Foxwood farms represent England Pinchfield Germany Destruction of the Windmill the failture of the Five Year Plan

16) REFERENCES http://sparknotes.com http://online-literature.com/orwell/animalfarm/ http://en.wikipedia.org/ http://www.k-l.com/Orwell/site/work/summaries/animf.html http://gradesaver.com

GROUP
ALINE GRODT CARLA DE AQUINO CRISTIANE SANTOS GLUCIA HENGE LISIANE MELO